In a wireless M2M system (Machine to Machine System; for example, a metering system and a remote management system) for which an increase in demand is predicted in the future, the use of a multihop wireless mesh network using a routing protocol, most notably RPL (IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks), is expected.
The multihop wireless mesh network allows each wireless node constituting the network to transfer data in a bucket brigade manner. Thus, compared to a star network centered at one base station, (1) a range in which communication is possible can be enlarged, and (2) the network can be configured such that a diverted route for transfer is created if a certain wireless node or wireless communication path becomes unusable, thereby allowing the reliability of communication to be improved.
On the other hand, compared to the star network, consideration work and testing work become complex with regard to various items necessary for consideration when the network is designed or devices are installed, such as (1) possibility of communication between wireless nodes, (2) a range in which communication as the wireless network is possible, (3) an installation location of a relay wireless node to be installed in order to enable communication if communication between wireless nodes is not possible, and (4) an installation location of a wireless node to be installed in order to increase the number of communication paths in the wireless network (or redundancy of the wireless network), for example.
Therefore, in order to perform the above-described work efficiently, it is desired that the items related to wireless characteristics as described above be displayed for the user who creates the network in a manner that facilitates visual perception.
As a technique for such display regarding wireless characteristics, there is known a technique of displaying icons and communication ranges of devices that perform wireless communication on an electronic map (Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2).
In a device map display apparatus described in Patent Literature 1, device installation information is acquired from a management center which is a component of a network that is operating, and icons displayed to indicate devices are changed according to the scale of an electronic map, and also the communication status between devices that perform wireless communication is displayed with a line, thereby allowing the actual communication status to be perceived. Moreover, a range of reach of radio waves transmitted from each device can be displayed.
In a wireless relay device support apparatus described in Patent Literature 2, a communication range of each device is obtained by simulation using various databases such as a database of wireless characteristics of individual relay devices, so as to predict and display a candidate location for installing a relay device (a utility pole, etc.).